Action Item

If you are a law student or solo/small firm practitioner, ⇉ click here to sign this amicus brief. ⇇ The signing period will close midnight May 9, 2019.

Hello LAW PROFESSORS, LAW LIBRARIANS AND LEGAL EDUCATORS! We love you too! If you՚d like to sign, please ⇉ click here to sign this amicus brief. ⇇

Background

In 2013, Public.Resource.Org, a non-profit corporation based in California, purchased, scanned, and posted the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA). The OCGA is the one and only official law of the State of Georgia, but the state objected vociferously to this wanton promulgation, maintaining that the only party who could make the OCGA available was their designated commercial vendor. Any other use would be a copyright violation.

The State of Georgia sued Public Resource in the U.S. District Court and received judgement in their favor including a federal injunction prohibiting any and all dissemination of the code. (View the District Court Docket) Public Resource appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and won a resounding 3-0 victory. (View the Appellate Docket and the Opinion)

The State of Georgia has now appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. (View the Petition for Certiorari) Public Resource will be responding to the Petition on May 3, 2019 and will maintain that the U.S. Supreme Court should take the case. Public Resource maintains that the State of Georgia has the law and the facts wrong, but nevertheless, the matter should be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jef Pearlman, Interim Director of the Intellectual Property Law Clinic at the USC Gould School of Law has prepared a Brief of Amici Curiae which will be filed in support of the grant of the Writ of Certiorari. 

Celebrate Law Day By Signing—Act Now!

This page is an amicus brief in support of Public Resource by law students and practitioners in solo practice or small law firms. If you would like to sign this brief, please READ THE BRIEF and then ⇉ click on this form to submit your name. ⇇ The signature block will remain open until midnight on May 9, 2019.

For Further Reading

A number of press articles have been written about this case and your right to read and speak the laws. You may also find the oral argument before the Eleventh Circuit to be instructive. If you wish to search the OCGA or download the code as a word processing file, you may do so here at the Internet Archive. For now, at least.

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews